Newsletter on pharmaceutics for April 2020

This legal alert highlights the most important legal developments of April 2020 that affect the Uzbek pharmaceutical industry as a whole and activities of foreign pharmaceutical producers and their representative offices in Uzbekistan in particular.

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 1.  THE USE OF STATE FUNDS IN 2020

As a result of the spread of COVID-19, the government decided to take the following measures to ensure better utilization of state funds:

• postpone the implementation/financing of new projects of minor importance;
• continue proper performance of state obligations under ongoing projects, prioritizing social projects;
• continue proper repayment of foreign debts and the implementation of commenced PPP projects;
• optimize expenditures of local budgets of regions, cities, and towns, ensuring that financing of less prioritized projects is postponed;
• order all state agencies and institutions (except for medical and some social establishments) to suspend construction, reconstruction, and repair works as well as the purchasing of assets at the expense of their extra-budgetary funds (i.e. funds being not directed from the state budget, but accumulated by those institutions as a result of their performance of specific activities – the collection of fines, the charging of state fees, etc.), except for the projects, the financing of which has already commenced;
• revise business plans of enterprises with state shares above 50%; to ensure that dividends from the activity of such enterprises are entirely directed to the state budget; the Cabinet of Ministers is now empowered to take special decisions on a distribution of profits of state-owned enterprises engaged in the extraction of natural resources;
• make a list of projects financed by the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan that will be postponed. This list will include only those projects, wherein no construction and installation works have commenced yet.

Presidential Decree No. PP-4679 of 15 April 2020
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 232 of 16 April 2020

 2.  TASHKENT PHARMA PARK

Owing to the pandemic, the project "the Creation of the Modern Research and Production Pharmaceutical Cluster “Tashkent Pharma Park”" initiated in January 2020 was accelerated. The Fund for Reconstruction and Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan was instructed to allocate USD 50 mln to finance the project. As a result of the relevant measures, the process for the selection of potential contractors will be initiated in near future.

Presidential Decree No. PP - 4698 of 28 April 2020

 3.  PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: TENDER AND BIDDING

The Regulation on the Procedure for the Organization of Public Procurement was supplemented. Now, it is set that:

• tenders and competitive bidding can be conducted electronically. The corresponding online platforms have already been created: http://xarid.mf.uz/ – for e-bidding and http://tender.mf.uz/ – for e-tenders.
• in the above public procurement procedures, bid bonds are now to be provided for a period until a winner is determined, and for the winning bidder – under until a relevant procurement contract is concluded. The bid bond may not exceed 3% of the relevant contract price.

Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 3016-3 of 13 April 2020

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Sincerely,
Kosta Legal Law Firm